JORDAN McGHEE last night admitted Scotland’s semi-final defeat to classy Mexico was a crash course in the hard school of top-class international football.

The Hearts kid headed Billy Stark’s side into a lead against the Central Americans at the ADO Den Haag youth tournament but they were pegged back and bowed out after a 2-1 defeat.

The young Scots were second best in technical ability, speed of thought and all-round awareness but McGhee insists lessons are being learned in a bid to raise the standards back home.

He said: “I enjoyed my goal but ultimately we are out. Being with the Scotland squad over here in Holland has been a great learning curve.

“It’s never nice to lose but we took a lot out of the matches here. It’s terrific to go up against a side of Mexico’s quality and we also defeated Brazilian outfit Cruzeiro in the group stage and they are class.

“You see the gulf between these types of teams and the ones who are trying to aspire to be at that level.

“They have much better movement and you need to keep your concentration.

“They change the tempo and it’s difficult to play against. We need to adapt to that as it’s not something we are used to.

“We spend most of our time chasing long balls or trying to win headers.

“It’s something our game needs to look at and we are working on it with Scotland and Hearts.”

The stopper was one of the plus points in Holland and McGhee believes he has benefited from having a couple of cultured centre-halves as role models.

The 16-year-old said: “I’m a big fan of Sergio Ramos of Real Madrid. He is so comfortable on the ball and I admire him.

“At Hearts we have Danny Wilson and I always enjoyed watching him when he was at Rangers. He’s my type of defender, aggressive but great on the ball.”

McGhee left school at 15 to pursue his dream with Hearts and the gamble appears to have paid off with the youngster making his top-team debut in the 3-0 win over St Mirren at Tynecastle last month.

He said: “My friends stayed on at school and are now at college and university.

“That was never an option for me as my dream was to be a pro footballer.

“It was a brilliant experience to make my debut against St Mirren.

“I came on for the last five minutes and loved it. Hopefully I will have more opportunities next season.

“The culture at Hearts has changed as there are more chances for young players. Scottish football has been forced to go down the road of going with youth as there’s not much money left.”

THE REPORTS:

Despite being outplayed for most of the match, it was a familiar story of missed chances for Billy Stark’s side in a semi-final that saw Hibs striker Danny Handling squander a late penalty.

Fulham’s Cameron Burgess headed against a post early on before Hearts kid Jordan McGhee rose to nod in a corner just after the interval of the 25-minute each-way format. Mexico stepped up their tempo and the superb Walter Sandoval hit the post before Carlos Rodriguez levelled from 35 yards.

Handling’s spot-kick was saved four minutes from time after Ivan Pineda had handled.

Pineda hit the winner in injury time when he appeared to punch the ball into the net.

SCOTLAND U20s 0 FK SENICA 1

BILLY STARK insists Scotland can take hope for the future from their fourth-place finish ?in the ADO Den Haag Youth Tournament in Holland.

Ivan Pikulik’s first-half thunderbolt won it for Senica.

Aberdeen’s Craig Storie watched a volley flash past and Hibs youngster Ross Caldwell also went close with a shot he dragged across goal.

And the Under-20s boss, right, admitted: “Some of our boys were out on their feet. But it’s been a great tournament and we’ve tested ourselves against Brazilians, Mexicans, Belgians and Slovakians.

“A few of the boys here could step up into our Under-21s squad and that’s a big positive.”